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Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal mentioned drug prices with Scott Simon, the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition on Saturday, Feb. 10. This is a transcript of that dialog.
SCOTT SIMON, NPR: The new price range handed by Congress final week contains modifications for Medicare sufferers. It would require drug firms to offer deeper reductions to Medicare on costly prescriptions. That ought to scale back the price of medication for sufferers. The skyrocketing price of pharmaceuticals is one thing adopted carefully by Elisabeth Rosenthal, a veteran healthcare reporter and editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, who joins us from her workplaces. Thanks a lot for being with us.
ELISABETH ROSENTHAL: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: Will this and different options you see within the price range assist scale back the price of pharmaceuticals?
ROSENTHAL: Well, to a small variety of folks, it can. I imply, this actually targets the Medicare-age inhabitants and Medicare plans. And for individuals who have very excessive drug prices inside Medicare, it can undoubtedly assist them. But it, in fact, doesn’t resolve the a lot bigger downside of the very excessive prescription drug costs that everybody pays on this nation. And P.S., what we’re speaking about for Medicare sufferers, even, are reductions on these very excessive preliminary costs. So, you recognize, a reduction of a extremely excessive worth nonetheless isn’t an excellent deal.
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SIMON: Why do we have now an issue with this within the United States?
ROSENTHAL: Well, we’re the one nation that doesn’t indirectly immediately negotiate prescription drug costs with producers – the one developed nation, that’s. I imply, most different nations in some kind both consider the cost-benefit ratio of a brand new drug and determine what they’re prepared to pay or, you recognize, very aggressively negotiate with drug producers, notably for older medication, as they age.
SIMON: Insulin in a single kind or one other has been saving lives for – what? – 80 years.
ROSENTHAL: Yeah.
SIMON: Why has the value gone up lately?
ROSENTHAL: Prices will rise to regardless of the market will bear, proper? We see that uniquely within the U.S. One vial of insulin within the U.S. prices seven instances what it does in Germany. So there’s an enormous disparity there. Some of the explanations need to do with reformulations of insulin which might be, actually, higher than a number of the older ones. Although, after I’m speaking about that 1 in 7 worth comparability, that’s the identical actual insulin.
In the U.S., what’s occurred – and that is one thing that I do know the Trump administration is and lots of consultants within the subject have decried – the gradual arrival of biosimilars or generic insulins onto the market, that are available on the market in different nations. The downside on this nation is the decreasing of costs of insulin. And insulin patents have been held up within the courts for years now in fits and countersuits between the three massive insulin drug makers, together with by Eli Lilly, which is the previous employer of our new HHS Secretary.
SIMON: That’s Alex Azar – has been appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services.
ROSENTHAL: Yes.
SIMON: Is he the type of selection that provides you optimism that prescription drug costs will come down?
ROSENTHAL: Well, there’s a sure argument to be made that Alex Azar of all folks on Earth understands how the video games are performed and the way these fits and countersuits about making generics or making biosimilars have held up the arrival on the U.S. market and have raised costs for everybody. On the opposite hand, there’s ongoing concern concerning the revolving door between authorities and pharmaceutical firms such that you just marvel, is their loyalty to the American folks, or is their loyalty to the pharmaceutical world from which they got here?
SIMON: I don’t assume I can consider any politician who says, and should you elect me, I promise pharmaceuticals will price extra.
ROSENTHAL: (Laughter).
SIMON: I imply, quite the opposite, each politician says, elect me, and I’ll do one thing to convey down the price of pharmaceuticals. Why doesn’t that get finished?
ROSENTHAL: Yeah. Everyone agrees that our prescription drug prices are too excessive – each proper and left – you recognize, Democrat, Republican. It’s one of many few factors of data, factors of truth that everybody agrees on. The downside is everybody disagrees on how finest to deal with that. And there are lots of forces which might be resisting any change in any respect.
The bipartisan answer which Senator Klobuchar and Senator John McCain have proposed is permitting prescription drug imports from different nations, so we permit for a worldwide competitors within the sense of, you recognize, if everybody else is getting a greater deal than we’re, why can’t we purchase our pharmaceuticals from there the identical manner we purchase our, you recognize, fridges and automobiles?
SIMON: Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News and writer of “An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business And How You Can Take It Back.” Thanks a lot for being with us.
ROSENTHAL: Thanks for having me.
KHN’s protection of prescription drug growth, prices and pricing is supported by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
Related Topics Medicare Pharmaceuticals Diabetes Drug Costs Prescription Drugs Trump Administration
